Wormy
New member
Right! Where do I start? I had a few hours spare yesterday afternoon/early evening and seeing as the Bollihope burn is on my doorstep and I've always overlooked it, due to having very small caves, I decided to don my overalls and go for a wander!
The cave guides list the Bollihope caves thusly:
So as I left the car I wasnt expecting anything phenomenal, however the evening ended in third degree nettle stings approximately 8 caves and me getting rather excited.
1.First of all the resurgence cave, which is very collapsed! The two resurgences listed are very obvious being on the south side of the stream and only a couple of meters apart, however the sound of eching water sounds tatalisingly close, so before I had even looked at teh rest of the valley I decided to have a dig:
Before:
After:
Unfortunately the whole limestone block has come down, there are a few small holes that seem to dissapear off into darkness but no way to get to them
2. I then decided to head right to the top of the valley, looking for Bollihope1 and work my way down, Bollihope 1 is right in the very top of the limestone bed, ridiculously tight and not very long although the walls are very nicely water-carved. It fits the cave guide description perfectly:
3. I then started walking down the (dry) stream bed in search of Bollihope2. There are a lot of nettles growing against the cliffs and scars on the south bank, so after finding a trusty whacking stick I set to work clearing away the nettles from the base of the cliffs and any nooks and crannies that looked interesting, this is the first cave i came across, very low it obviously only gets cut out when the river is in flood:
4. Next is this little oddity, the horizontal crack behind this slot opens to a tight phraetic tube that narrows to impassable after about 3 meters. Not very big but still definately a cave:
5. The next one down appears ver un-assuming but opens up just inside to a meter and a half wide bedding plane crawl, there is a lot of clay in it and I estimate I got about 10 meters in but it appears to go for another 10 meters at least, a minimal amount of digging should open it up enough to see what (if anything) is at the end:
6. After that is a small rift cave blocked at the far end with fallen boulders, in all about 4-5 meters long:
7. Then the big rift cave, this is (I assume) the 17 meter one that the guides log as Bollihope2, a bit of a crawl at the entrance soon opens up into a hands and knees crawl, I will say that it seemed longer than 17 meters to me (I will be going back with a tape to find out) there is a small rise towards the back, but the cave continues behind it for another 5 meters or so. There is also a lot of otter spraint at the entrance, an otters nest halfway along it and otter foorprints everywhere.
8. Another interesting one next, approximately 2.5 meters wide and 1.5 meters tall, at the moment it only goes in about a meter and a half until choked by clay, definately worth a dig I think primarily down to the size of the tube, although a lot of work will be involved:
9. Another long tube, squeeze to get into but then opens slightly, approximately 8 meters before it narrowed too much to get through:
10. And last but not least another that needs some work, two large blocks of limestone wedged in the entrance, I reckon half an hour with some wrecking bars and a rope should shift them, long rift visible behind them:
So all in all an interesting evening with some definite possibilities to go back to for a dig (I will be approaching the landowner for permission to dig them) Worth the nettle stings and midge bites!
The cave guides list the Bollihope caves thusly:
So as I left the car I wasnt expecting anything phenomenal, however the evening ended in third degree nettle stings approximately 8 caves and me getting rather excited.
1.First of all the resurgence cave, which is very collapsed! The two resurgences listed are very obvious being on the south side of the stream and only a couple of meters apart, however the sound of eching water sounds tatalisingly close, so before I had even looked at teh rest of the valley I decided to have a dig:
Before:
After:
Unfortunately the whole limestone block has come down, there are a few small holes that seem to dissapear off into darkness but no way to get to them
2. I then decided to head right to the top of the valley, looking for Bollihope1 and work my way down, Bollihope 1 is right in the very top of the limestone bed, ridiculously tight and not very long although the walls are very nicely water-carved. It fits the cave guide description perfectly:
3. I then started walking down the (dry) stream bed in search of Bollihope2. There are a lot of nettles growing against the cliffs and scars on the south bank, so after finding a trusty whacking stick I set to work clearing away the nettles from the base of the cliffs and any nooks and crannies that looked interesting, this is the first cave i came across, very low it obviously only gets cut out when the river is in flood:
4. Next is this little oddity, the horizontal crack behind this slot opens to a tight phraetic tube that narrows to impassable after about 3 meters. Not very big but still definately a cave:
5. The next one down appears ver un-assuming but opens up just inside to a meter and a half wide bedding plane crawl, there is a lot of clay in it and I estimate I got about 10 meters in but it appears to go for another 10 meters at least, a minimal amount of digging should open it up enough to see what (if anything) is at the end:
6. After that is a small rift cave blocked at the far end with fallen boulders, in all about 4-5 meters long:
7. Then the big rift cave, this is (I assume) the 17 meter one that the guides log as Bollihope2, a bit of a crawl at the entrance soon opens up into a hands and knees crawl, I will say that it seemed longer than 17 meters to me (I will be going back with a tape to find out) there is a small rise towards the back, but the cave continues behind it for another 5 meters or so. There is also a lot of otter spraint at the entrance, an otters nest halfway along it and otter foorprints everywhere.
8. Another interesting one next, approximately 2.5 meters wide and 1.5 meters tall, at the moment it only goes in about a meter and a half until choked by clay, definately worth a dig I think primarily down to the size of the tube, although a lot of work will be involved:
9. Another long tube, squeeze to get into but then opens slightly, approximately 8 meters before it narrowed too much to get through:
10. And last but not least another that needs some work, two large blocks of limestone wedged in the entrance, I reckon half an hour with some wrecking bars and a rope should shift them, long rift visible behind them:
So all in all an interesting evening with some definite possibilities to go back to for a dig (I will be approaching the landowner for permission to dig them) Worth the nettle stings and midge bites!
